ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND (APG), Maryland --The U.S. Army announced today that it will host a second "Software Solarium" sponsored by the Army Staff and the United States Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM). The forum, being held at APG from February 2-3, 2017, will be used to bring government, academia and industry together to help solve complex challenges in Army software governance policy, development, sustainment and cyber protection.
"The intent of Software Solarium II is to bring together organizations with equities in Army software, validate Software Solarium lines of effort, present and gain concurrence of near- and long-term action plans, and further refine Army software challenges. Bringing industry into this process early will enable us to collectively inform the development of long-term solutions to software challenges," said Medhat Abuhantash, Director of CECOM's Software Engineering Center.
Over the last decade the Army has experienced an exponential growth in software reliant systems and capabilities, according to Army leaders, the growth in the software environment has the potential to impact current and future Army Warfighting Functions (Mission Command, Movement and Maneuver, Intelligence, Fires, Sustainment and Protection) at every echelon in the Army's formations. Absent institutional change, current legacy software development and sustainment processes will continue to induce risks into the Army's ability to modernize, sustain and protect weapon systems and critical enterprise business applications. Discussions as part of Software Solarium II will work to address these complex challenges.
"Virtually every Army tactical and business system in use today requires complex software that must be developed or acquired, updated, integrated, and maintained, in quick succession. In all cases, software has become a key component for Army readiness," said Maj. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford, Commanding General, CECOM and Senior Commander, APG. "The future software environment is defined by industry driven momentum towards primarily software managed weapon systems. In the long-term, this industry driven environment adds agility to our modernization efforts."
Although these software evolutions create opportunities, absent Army institutional change to help manage the environment, current legacy software development and sustainment processes will continue to induce risks into the Army's ability to modernize, sustain, protect weapon systems as well as critical enterprise business applications. "To thrive in the rapidly evolving software defined environment, the Army is not only working to adjust policy and practices but also to adapt sustainment and program management organizations to be in position to proactively manage software sustainment and development needs like pace, size, complexity and costs," said Larry Muzzelo, Deputy to the CECOM Commanding General.
An inaugural Software Solarium was held at APG on September 7, 2016, which resulted in identification of software related challenges, and "lines of effort" to address those challenges. The second Solarium, now open to industry participation, will be used to help prioritize actions associated with these lines of effort. Broadly, the lines of effort include challenges in how to enable a more defensible Army network; how to drive efficiency in software lifecycle management; optimization of software development and sustainment oversight and exploring issues in optimal government/industry software related workforce mix. Prior to Solarium II, industry will be presented with the software challenges and strategic questions for each of the four lines of effort, along with a request to provide their insights, experience, and recommendations, via the Federal Business Opportunities website. Industry input will then be incorporated into Solarium II government-only lines of effort discussions and potential action recommendations that will be offered to Army leadership. Interested parties can obtain more information on the Software Solarium II and register for the event at FedBizOpps website. To access please enter SOFTSOLII2017 in the Keyword/Solicitation # field at this link:https://www.fbo.gov/ .
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